Lawmaker believes sanctions against Russian MPs not to ruin hope for better ties with US

On November 15, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on six Russian MPs representing Crimea and Sevastopol

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SIMFEROPOL, November 15. /TASS/. Washington’s sanctions against the Crimean members of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) will not ruin the hope for improving relations with the US, former Crimean Deputy Prime Minister, now a State Duma member Ruslan Balbek told TASS.

"However, it seems the US Democratic party has not yet realized that these little tricks will not spoil out big hope to improve bilateral relations," the MP said.

Balbek stated that "the Crimean members of parliament plan to visit neither the US nor Europe", in his words, the US knows it perfectly well. "These sanctions are not worth the paper they are written on", Balbek said. "Nevertheless, the Democratic party is still furious after losing the election so it is eager to spoil the reputation of the president-elect’s team hoping that the Russian authorities will blame them for this." As TASS reported earlier, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on six individuals representing Crimea and Sevastopol in the State Duma, including Konstantin Bakharev, Ruslan Balbek, Andrei Kozenko, Svetlana Savchenko and Pavel Shperov representing Crimea as well as Dmitry Belik representing Sevastopol. The Department of the Treasury noted that Natalya Poklonskaya and Mikhail Sheremet representing Crimea in the new Duma, had been put under sanctions earlier.